Lorraine Michael:
Lorraine Michael, MHA, M.Div., B.A. (born March 27, 1943) is a social democratic Canadian politician and since 2006 has been leader of Newfoundland and Labrador's New Democratic Party. She is a former nun and teacher, and social activist. On November 1, 2006, she was elected Member of the House of Assembly for the constituency of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.
[edit] Biography
Michael was born on March 27, 1943 to a Lebanese-Canadian family in St. John's, Newfoundland. After being educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Toronto, she became a nun in the Roman Catholic Church and taught students in Bell Island, later serving as the school's principal under the Roman Catholic School board. As well her teaching career took her to Baie Verte, the Burin Peninsula and the Codroy Valley. She then continued as the director of the Office of Social Action for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, Newfoundland. While in the position she represented the Roman Catholic church in a number of coalitions for social justice, both regionally and nationally. In 1993 she left the church in a protest over the archdiocese's handling of the sexual abuse claims against the church.
Michael has since spent her time as both a social activist and a feminist within Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as internationally. In the past she has worked with the Toronto-based Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice (ECEJ). While working with the ECEJ she took part in conferences in Mexico, Chile, and Zimbabwe as a speaker on economic globalization. She had also worked with the Women and Work Committee of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and briefly served as the interim executive director. She also served seven years with the Women in Resource Development Committee as the executive director, consulting with industry, labour, education and government to achieve equal employment in the natural resource development sectors of Newfoundland and Labrador. This work was itself an extension of her work in Labrador as the Innu Nation nominee on the Voisey's Bay environmental assessment panel from 1997 to 1999.
[edit] Leadership
She was elected as leader of the New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador on May 28, 2006 during the party's policy and leadership convention. She was elected by a vote of 107-5 over fellow candidate Nina Patey to replace outgoing leader Jack Harris. Then on November 1, 2006 she was elected in a by-election in the district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi to fill the vacancy made by Jack Harris. She defeated Conservative candidate, and future justice minister, Jerome Kennedy with 1,968 votes to Kennedy's 1,595. The Liberal Party did not field a candidate.
Michael was re-elected to her seat after the 2007 election, defeating the Progressive Conservative candidate Maria Afonso by a 17% margin. The Liberal candidate finished a distant third with only 196 votes.
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